In the Hujsak application, supra, there is disclosed a roving autonomous maintenance vehicle for servicing orbiting satellite stations, capable of operating autonomously in the geosynchronous corridor for long periods of time in a standby mode and capable of proceeding on command to the selected satellite station to perform a maintenance function thereon automatically. The disclosed maintenance vehicle is provided with replacement hardware modules which are exchanged with a module in the satellite station which may have experienced a failure, or to upgrade the outdated hardware in the satellite, to thus prolong the life of the satellite. This is particularly useful in the communications field where the technological advances move rapidly. Since the modules contain hardware which are heat generating when in use in the satellite station, and since both the module and the satellite station must have a system for dissipating heat for the satellite station and the modules to properly function together, there is a problem involved in withdrawing a module from the satellite station without disrupting the satellite cooling system and at the same time substituting a new module from the maintenance vehicle and coupling the new module into the satellite cooling system so that the heat generated in the new module can be rejected by the satellite cooling system.
Accordingly, it is a primary object to this invention to provide a means by which a hardware component, functioning as part of the satellite cooling system, can be withdrawn from the satellite station without interference with the satellite cooling system, be replaced with a new component which is then coupled into the satellite cooling system for the continued operation of the satellite station.
A more specific object of this invention is to provide a modular system permitting on orbit automated coupling and decoupling between spacecraft heat generating elements and spacecraft heat rejecting elements.